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Events and Reports - Bloodstock Open Air 2010 - Day 1 - Ross The Boss, Enforcer, Powerwolf
Thursday
If like me, you live in the UK and can't afford to visit too many European festivals then there is one date that will surely be in your diary, Bloodstock Open Air. The only UK festival which caters for the true heavy metal fans and realises that not everyone wants a bill that consists of a big name act plus Machine Head, Lamb Of God and a whole bunch of emo and indie bands thrown in at the bottom (Hello Download and Sonisphere)
Last years Bloodstock festival had been one of the most fun filled weekends I'd had in a long time and I was hoping that this year's festival could match it. Things didn't start too well when I got an e-mail saying that fellow RevelationZ writer Nina couldn't make it over as she had injured herself in the name of metal at Wacken.
Also weather reports weren't looking promising with rain forecast for the first few days of the festival. Still Craig, Del and I packed up our stuff and jumped in Del's car for the five-hour drive from Glasgow to Derbyshire, where the festival was held.
On the way to the festival we stopped off to meet Eric and his mates who had set off from Dundee a few hours previous. We arranged to meet them at the festival site and a few hours later (with only one wrong turn taken) we made it to the festival.
We met up with our good friends Jim and Paul (again thanks go to Jim's St George's Cross adorned with a Manowar logo for making it easier to find them). We walked into the campsite and just as we began to set up our tent heard a massive shout from the other campsite. We turned round in horror to see the rain beating down on the other site, it only took a few seconds before the heavens opened above us and we got completely soaked.
I don't know if you have ever had the pleasure of setting up a tent in the pissing rain, but if you haven't then dear reader I can assure you it sucks beyond belief.
Still, eventually the tents were set up and the rain stopped (although the ominous sound of thunder was still close by). Eric had the superb idea of chipping in to buy a gazebo to keep us dry. We all put in some money and soon we had a proud purple gazebo to shelter under. I assure you I was not responsible for picking the colour!
We rocked out to the sounds of Manowar and Dio on Jim's stereo (which by now was fixed to the roof of the gazebo making it the festivals first proper party gazebo) and drank many a beer until it was time for the first of the festivals Thursday warm-up bands Hospital Of Death.
We turned up at the Sophie Lancaster Stage, which thankfully is in a tent, to be met with a pretty healthy crowd awaiting the English thrashers. For some reason whoever designed the tent had made the bizarre decision to put one of the massive tent poles in the photo pit in front of the stage, meaning it basically cut the stage in two and made it pretty impossible to see what was happening on both sides at once. Bloodstock, please give whoever had that bright idea a slap, thanks.
H.O.D put on a really good show with some up-tempo thrash numbers with humorous lyrics. There was a good mix of tracks from both their first and second records although I was a bit disappointed they were only given a forty minute set time.
The band impressed despite the short set length and a rather poor sound that seemed much louder than the PA could take at points. Songs like "Enter Titanus" and the superbly funny "King of Sweden" (which is about Yngwie Malmsteen ) got the drunken rabble watching the band moshing and crowdsurfing like there was no tomorrow. And if the crowd was drunk the band looked very eager to match them, especially guitarist Steven Bratt who polished off a two-litre bottle of cider during the gig.
The maniacal "White The Lightning" brought with it an anthemic flurry and some impressive vocals from Dave Livett and the band threw in a surprise cover by segueing from this into the latter part of "Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner" by Iron Maiden to finish the set.
I should also point out that both the bands albums are available to download for free from their Myspace, I would recommend you give them a try as they are really rather good.
We then headed back to the campsite and drank so much were completely forgot about Welsh death metalers Desecration which I'm a bit disappointed at as I wanted to check them out. Still, the drinking continued till somewhere around 2am when I crawled into my tent for some well earned rest.
Friday
Friday started early with a brutal hangover followed by a true heavy metal wake up call at 12pm with Ross The Boss. Being a massive Manowar fan I had been looking forward to seeing the man responsible for creating some of my favourite ever riffs and solos.
The weather wasn't great with rain showers hitting the festival site far too often for my liking but it certainly didn't stop a big crowd awaiting a King of Metal and his band. They arrived onstage and opened with "Blood Of Knifes" from their debut album "New Metal Leader". The sound was pretty good and this was followed by the Manowar classic "Hail to England" (or in my case Hail to Scotland) and certainly got the crowds heads banging.
They then played two of the strongest tracks off New Metal Leader, "We Will Kill" and the mighty "God Of Dying". Ross was in great form and was letting loose his solos and mountain levelling riffs with ease.
The only weak point about the band is vocalist Patrick Fuchs whose voice can sound very thin at points. Still, he is a genuinely likable guy who is an all round decent frontman. He just lacks that something extra special of say a certain Mr Eric Adams.
And speaking of Ross's old band the last part of the set list was a Manowar fan's wildest dream. Scott Columbus was invited up on stage to sit at the second drum kit and the band ploughed through "Kill With Power", "Thor (The Powerhead)" and "Fighting The World".
It was really special to see 50% of the classic Manowar line-up onstage together but despite this the crowd seemed perhaps a little subdued, strange considering that this is the closest we will get to seeing The Kings of Metal in the UK any time soon. But those of us in the front rows gave it our all and the Sign Of The Hammer was brandished on many an occasion.
There was a pretty special moment where Patrick dedicated the next song to Ronnie James Dio (who the Bloodstock main stage had been named after) and him and Ross played a really touching, laid back version of Rainbow's classic "Catch The Rainbow". This moment was completed when they perfectly segued into the "Brothers I am calling from the Valley of the Kings" opening to "Hail And Kill".
For this finale the bands normal drummer came back on stage and we were treated to a storming double drum version of the Manowar classic. A great way to kick start the festival and hopefully not the last time the band sets foot on British shores.
Ross The Boss Set-list:
I.L.H.
Blood Of Knives
Hail To England
We Will Kill
God Of Dying
Kill With Power
Thor (The Powerhead)
Fighting the World
Catch The Rainbow (Rainbow cover)
Hail And Kill
In a process repeated many times over the weekend, we retreated to the safety of the beer tent between bands to keep us out of the rain and to consume an alcoholic beverage or two.
Rage were up next and made the best of their short forty minute set by playing some of their best known tracks plus a couple off new album "Strings To A Web". Despite being criminally overlooked in the UK they got a good reaction from the crowd and continued the sing-a-long theme of the morning with the rousing set-closer "Higher Than The Sky". A good show although I'm gutted I didn't hear my favourite Rage track "War Of Worlds", next time Peavy, next time!
Long running Finnish folk metal hero's Ensiferum strode upon the Ronnie James Dio stage in their traditional kilts and bare chest stage garb (well except female keyboard player Emmi Silvennoinen of course) with the intent on making the festival their own.
Sadly they didn't really pick the set list to get the crowd going, as they opened with the first three songs off their new album "From Afar". It wasn't till the last of these "Twilight Tavern" started that the crowd really began to react, from this point in the band played a good mix of songs from their first three albums plus one more from From Afar.
The sound was a little harsh to begin with, especially the drums, which made it sound like Janne Parvianen was kicking some rusty dustbins really hard. This was eventually sorted out and helped the band out as the older stuff was aired. Having seen them a couple of times before I can't help but feel frontman Petri Lindroos could be a little more engaging with the crowd at times but beyond this I thought the band were very entertaining.
The set never really kicked into high gear as again the bands allotted stage time was really short (45 minutes). Perhaps a slightly adjusted set geared towards the fan favourites might have been more appropriate.
Ensiferum Set-list:
By the Dividing Stream
From Afar
Twilight Tavern
Into Battle
Token of Time
Ahti
Stone Cold Metal
One More Magic Potion
Iron
In fact if Ensiferum were watching when Cathedral took to the stage then they may have been given some food for thought. Last minute replacements for Behemoth (Get well soon Nergal!), the band had the same set length but only included one track from their recently released "Guessing Game" record.
This meant they could spend most of their time cranking out those whacking, great doom rock riffs they are best known for. I had seen them at Sweden Rock a couple of months before and like in Sweden they were effortlessly one of the best bands of the weekend.
The rain had slacked off a bit by this point so the blissed out feel of "Utopian Blaster" and "Cosmic Funeral" was a perfect match for the atmosphere. Lee Dorian prowled the stage like a cat as he conducted ceremonies and looked very happy to finally get an invite to the Bloodstock Open Air party even under such unfortunate circumstances.
The set was closed off as always with the band's mega-hit "Hopkins (Witchfinder General)" that got the audience bouncing along as Lee led them in a chant of "Burn, Burn, Burn!"
Cathedral Set-list:
Vampire Sun
Utopia Blaster
Cosmic Funeral
Funeral Of Dreams
Corpse Cycle
Ride
Hopkins (Witchfinder General)
Our pilgrimage to the beer tent and back to the main stage continued as we waited for black metal legends Gorgoroth to take the stage. Black metal is a strangely under represented genre at Bloodstock each year with only Gorgoroth and one other signed BM band playing over this weekend.
I had seen the Gaahl fronted version a couple of times and while I enjoyed them I was never blown away. This was my first chance to see the Pest/Infernus Gorgoroth, which also included Frank Watkins of Obituary on bass, so I was quite excited.
Much preferring Pests vocals to Gaahl's I was not surprised to find out that I enjoyed this version of the group much more. Pest has an impressive stage presence and even the fact that he was spitting fake blood that made his mouth look like he had been sucking on a red lollipop didn't distract from the menace of the music that much.
The band music isn't really suited to an outdoors daytime setting as it takes away some of the atmosphere and mystery, this lead to a few bored faces in the crowd. But I though they played excellently ending the set very strongly (if a little prematurely) with "Unchain My Heart!!!" and "Revelation of Doom".
We were faced with a hard choice at this point as with Behemoth pulling out of the festival, Sonata Arctica had been bumped up into their slot, which meant Sonata now clashed with up and coming Swedes Steelwing.
I was disappointed to have to miss Steelwing but I reasoned that since I had seen them in Sweden this year and hadn't seen Sonata since their last album I would have to choose the Finns over the Swedes. I wish I hadn't bothered.
To put it lightly Sonata Arctica were shit, far and away the limpest performance of the festival. I don't know what has happened to this band but they have lost what made them special. The set list did nothing for me bar the same old songs that they always play ("Full Moon", "8th Commandment" and "Last Drop Falls") and the sounds was paper thin with very little guitar in the mix. Sonata have always been crying out for a second guitarist live, so when you rob their only guitarist of a powerful sound this is going to wreck the set.
Worst moment of the gig had to be where I turned to Craig and told him that I really hope they didn't play that one of "Unia" with the awful "I find it hard to love myself right now" lyric only to have them play it a song later. Tony, I still love you but dear God that track is the worst thing you have ever written.
"Don't Say A Word" picked things up a little at the end of the set but by this point they had already lost me. As they played their usual vodka song finale Craig and I trudged off to see Enforcer who were starting on the Sophie stage the very second Sonata finished.
Sonata Arctica Set-list:
Everything Fades To Grey Introduction
Flag In The Ground
Last Amazing Greys
Last Drop Falls
Fullmoon
Juliet
8th Commandment
The Dead Skin
Paid In Full
Don't Say A Word
Vodka Song/Everything Fades... Outro
If Sonata had left us with a bad taste in our mouths Enforcer were the ones to wash it away with their refreshing blend of all things NWOBHM. The band play with the intensity and speed of a punk band, rarely pausing for breath, always rushing through the next trad metal onslaught with a frenzied pace.
Frontman Olof Wikstrand is a whirlwind of energy on stage, a flamboyant showman to the core he is the perfect focal point for this type of music. The other members of the band are no slouches either always in constant motion on stage, except for drummer Tobias Lindquvist of course.
The music is just so high energy that you cant help getting swept up in it, from the speed metal intensity of "Mistress From Hell" to the more melodic "On The Loose" the band perfectly capture what makes 80's metal so vital. The sounds wasn't great but I am really familiar with the bands music so it didn't bother me too much
I made a quick call to Nina during "Scream Of The Savage" to cheer her up a bit, as I knew it was her favourite Enforcer song. It was mine too until I heard "Walk With Me" from the new album. It's a wonderful track inspired by David Lynch's Twin Peaks and has some fantastic vocal melodies. A great set was finished by "Evil Attacker" and the crowd were at last free to rest their aching necks and feet.
Enforcer Set-list:
Midnight Vice
Mistress From Hell
On The Loose
Roll the Dice
Diamonds
Scream Of The Savage
Walk With Me
Take Me To Hell
Evil Attacker
We were soon back at the Sophie stage for German power metal lycanthropes Powerwolf. They carried on the good work done by Enforcer by delivering some more good, old-fashioned melodic metal. Their performance carried more of an operatic, theatrical air than the young Swedes as they wove tongue in cheek tales of Satanism, black magic and of course werewolves
They are not too well known in the UK and to be honest I had only started to listen to them after they got announced. But you could tell by the atmosphere around the half way point in the tent that curiosity had turned into delight as the roar of the crowd got louder and louder after each song.
Dressed in robes and carrying a large crucifix on a chain, frontman Attila Dorn certainly creates a striking impression as do the rest of the band. However when they are singing such gloriously silly songs as "Catholic In the Morning...Satanist At Night" and *ahem* "Resurrection By Erection" you know they don't take themselves too seriously. I should point out that by this point I was roaring drunk and perhaps don't remember as much of the set as I should but I can tell you one thing, they were bloody good indeed.
Powerwolf Set-list:
We Take It From The Living
Saturday Satan
Raise Your Fist Evangelist
Werewolves Of Armenia
Prayer In The Dark
Panic In The Pentagram
Resurrection By Erection
Catholic In The Morning...Satanist At Night
Kiss Of The Cobra King
Lupus Dei
----------------------
Moscow After Dark
After Powerwolf we attempted to watch some of Opeth but yet again they bored me to tears. Fair play to them for filling the slot at a late stage as Heaven And Hell were originally booked for headlining the final night but after Dio's death, Twisted Sister got moved to the H&H slot leaving an empty space for a headliner. The organisers did well to get a band of Opeth's stature in but sadly for me I just can't stand them and thought they ended the night with a damp squib rather than a bang.
· Day 1
· Day 2
· Day 3
| | Written by Stuart
Thursday, October 14, 2010 |
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